A Novel Affair
by TheGrimLlama
Summary: Beca hated Tuesday afternoons. Scratch that. Beca hated the time slot between three thirty and four fifteen on Tuesday afternoons. You'd think she'd love Tuesdays. They were the one day a week she finished work early. But Tuesdays were shaping up to be a special kind of hell.


_**So I wrote this for a very special lady who suggested I write this as a thank you to an amazing someone from the fandom who inadvertently played a part in me actually getting the ladyballs to... well... have a read... Jenny, this is fairly close to what actually happened, except you know, you don't actually write novels... which is a shame. Because you'd totally be earning a hell of a lot of $$... just saying...**_

Beca hated Tuesday afternoons. Scratch that. Beca hated the time slot between three thirty and four fifteen on Tuesday afternoons. You'd think she'd love Tuesdays. They were the one day a week she finished work early. Granted, she worked in a music studio, so work wasn't exactly _work_ for her. But Tuesdays were shaping up to be a special kind of hell.

You see, Beca was a mom. Her four year old son, James, had recently decided that he was interested in ballet. Beca, being the _cool_ mom that she is, indulged him. She looked up the nearest dance school to their house, which was incidentally only a five minute walk from the studio where Beca spent her days. And so it started.

Beca would collect Jamie from Kinder at three and they'd walk down to the dance studio where he'd change into his tights, oversized t-shirt and slippers. It was adorable. James was the only boy in his class, which made Beca chuckle a little. Barely five and he was already a total Casanova.

She'd been dreading it, mainly due to the looks she usually got from other mothers when she took James places. See, Beca was barely five foot three, and much of her left forearm was covered in a rather large tattoo. She certainly wasn't your storybook version of a mom. It bothered her a little, not because they were judging her, but because they were judging her aptitude as a parent, and that made her furious.

So she picked up James, plastering a smile across her face, despite the nerves and dread she felt at the thought of dealing with a waiting room full of soccer moms. James was excited, he was bouncing along the footpath, his purple headphones blasting… the pentatonix? _Ugh, this kid has great taste,_ Beca thought as she laughed at him stumbling over the too-big pair of rainbow gumboots that he'd demanded to wear that morning. He looked around and fixed his mother with a glare, "'Snot funny, Beca!"

"Sorry dude. It was a little funny. I did tell you that you'd have to grow into those," Beca said, slipping her hand into his. He slipped his head phones own around his neck, mirroring Beca's own pair of wireless cans, that were permanent fixture to her outfit. "You ready for this?"

"Yeah… Are you?" James said, raising an eyebrow. He was far too perceptive for his own good. Beca hated that her single mother status had forced him to grow up so quickly.

She laughed and held the studio door open for him, "I'm fine, mini man. Let me just sign you in and collect your uniform."

James nodded and dumped his backpack in the cubby across from the reception desk. The woman behind the desk, Stacie, was a woman that Beca had known for years. They'd met during Beca's freshman (and only) year of college. She'd taken the job at the dance studio to help out with her massive tuition, a downside that came with being an astrophysics major. Stacie smiled and directed James towards the second door on the right. "Hey Beca. He looks so excited!"

"Yeah, he's pretty stoked. Poor kid hasn't really shown much interest in anything except his music since his dad left. I'm glad you suggested this."

Stacie smiled and reached into the cupboard behind her, she took out a perfectly folded pair of tights and a small t-shirt, along with a silk bag. "So his shoes are in that bag. It's lucky. We normally don't carry the black slippers in his size. I accidentally stuffed up the order so… The shirt might be a bit big. He's a scrawny little guy compared to the older boys in the hip hop classes."

"You calling my kid scrawny, Conrad?"

"He must get it from you, Mitchell. Class starts in fifteen. Just follow James in. Make sure you introduce yourself to Chloe," Stacie added with a cheeky grin.

"Who's Chloe?"

"You'll see. Get in there and get that boy dressed."

Beca waved at Stacie and followed James into the waiting room. She found him sitting in the corner chatting to a tiny girl dressed in a blue leotard, with her red hair tied in a tight bun. She was surprised when James smiled and slipped his headphones over the little girls head.

"They get along well."

"Shit!" Beca jumped, she turned to see a woman who was clearly the mother of the tiny girl that James was chatting to. She blinked a few times, taking in the woman in front of her. She didn't look much older than Beca and was not much taller, but she had the bluest pair of eyes that Beca had ever seen. "Sorry, you scared me."

"Eh, I'm sure Ellie and James have heard worse. I'm Chloe, by the way. Stacie told me to introduce myself…"

Beca found herself laughing and took the spare seat on the couch next to Chloe, "Of course she did. I'm Beca. Just give me a sec. He's got to get his gear on… James!"

And that was the first time Beca met Chloe. They'd hit it off almost immediately. Chloe being a young mom as well seemed to find it a little easier to talk to Beca than the other women did. They often found themselves sprawled across the couch together, chatting about their week. Occasionally, she'd noticed Chloe throwing her an odd glance, but she just wrote it off because Beca was basically Chloe's polar opposite. Chloe was always smiling and wearing bright colours and cute sundresses. Beca was sarcastic and wore far too much plaid than was usually acceptable.

The more Beca thought about it, the more she enjoyed Chloe's company on Tuesday's. She'd been expecting to sit in the corner of the waiting room, headphones on, rereading the latest Jenny Redlance romance novel… On her phone of course… Heaven forbid someone find out that she actually read lesbian romance novels in her spare time. She was basically a Sapphic poster child. She didn't need to make it any more obvious.

Coming into James's second term at ballet, Beca and Chloe had forged a strange friendship. As much as Beca found herself looking forward to Tuesdays, she dreaded the idea that it would be another week before she could speak to Chloe again and she refused to admit that she had developed a slight crush on her friend. That would be weird. And so friggen typical of Beca Mitchell. She was a walking fucking stereotype, crushing on her clearly heterosexual friend.

James had been begging to have Ellie come over so he could show her his guitar collection, which admittedly was far too big for someone who was under school age. She'd decide that today she'd let Chloe know and organise some sort of playdate.

They arrived fifteen minutes early as usual. Beca noticed that her usual seat had been taken by a man that she'd never seen before. Probably one of the dads. Maybe even Ellie's. She quashed the oddly territorial feeling that she got and returned the grin that Chloe sent her. Beca quickly dressed James and let him skip over to Ellie who was playing with another little girl in the corner of the room. She noticed Chloe apologise to the man next to her and slide into the chair next to Beca.

"Gosh, I never thought he'd stop talking," Chloe whispered conspiratorially.

Beca smirked, "Not a fan?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, "Surely you've noticed… Or do I need to start carrying around a little white flag."

Beca squinted slightly before realising what Chloe had just revealed. Either Chloe was throwing a huge gay hint, or Beca spent too much time reading Jenny Redlance novels. Beca smirked. There was no way this was a coincidence. Jenny's new novel had been released last week and one of the characters had offered to wave around a white flag whenever she had a remarkably gay thought.

"I'm sorry… Did you just… Has somebody been binging on Redlance novels? Oh my God! You fucking have!" Beca laughed loudly, ignoring the glares from the other occupants of the room.

Chloe's face flushed spectacularly, she hadn't realised that Beca would pick up the Redlance reference, and suddenly felt herself feeling embarrassed. "Oh my god! Do you know how hard I've tried to keep that little obsession a secret? And here you are…"

"Chill out, Chlo, it's me. I'm totally not gonna make fun of you for reading bodice rippers… Everyone has their obsessions… Yours is just a little more embarrassing than others…"

"I'm serious Beca! How do you even know that book?" Beca's smirk slipped slightly. She caught it, praying that it wouldn't be noticeable to Chloe, but unfortunately for Beca, Chloe's face suddenly change. It was like a switch had been flipped, and her embarrassment morphed to smug satisfaction, "Oh. My. God! You fucking dork!"

"Excuse me? You're the one who was busted reading Sapphic romance novels…"

Chloe wiggled her eyebrows, "Excuse you, but there is only one way that you'd pick up that perfectly obscure reference… You are so fucking busted Mitchell! So busted! How many times have you read it? I only picked that up after the second read through…"

Beca rolled her eyes, "Fine! I've read it twice! No big deal…"

"No big deal. No big deal? You were about to throw me under the bus and it backfired… Epically!"

Beca groaned, she knew calling Chloe out was a bad idea. Why didn't she listen to that little red flag when it started waving? "Yeah, ok. Haha… We both read Redlance in our spare time. Do you want to start a book club?"

Chloe grinned and tugged on a strand of Beca's hair, "Really think that's a good idea? Considering the content of the book in question… Which leads me to wonder… Beca? Do you have girl-crush tendencies that you failed to tell me about? Or is this a completely new avenue you're exploring and forgot to mention?"

Sometime during Chloe's rant, Beca managed to come to grips with her embarrassment, "I fail to see how this is any of your business… Actually, no I don't. I knew you were checking me out, you perv!"

Chloe's cheeks tinted pink again, "So what if I was. Took you long enough to notice…"

"Yeah, I'm kinda oblivious to that kinda thing. Want to grab a coffee tomorrow? We can start our little book club thing…"

Chloe grinned and ducked her head, "Yeah… I'd like that."

"Cool," Beca said, trying to control the embarrassingly large grin that was threatening to break her face. Tuesday's were quickly becoming one of Beca's favourite days.


End file.
